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psu football

By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter
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STATE COLLEGE — The games where some of the loudest cheers are sarcastic also seem to last the longest.

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Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark completes a pass despite being hit by Indiana’s Will Patterson in Saturday’s Big Ten football game at Beaver Stadium. Clark and the other PSU seniors scored a 31-20 victory to conclude their careers at home.

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After a relatively futile spike by Indiana in the final minute failed to move the game clock, the officials stepped in and ordered that one second be taken off.

And the crowd roared.

While Penn State seniors enjoyed the opportunity to sink in a few extra moments in their final game at Beaver Stadium, most everyone else just wanted the Nittany Lions’ 31-20 victory to end.

This was a game where the No. 18 Lions (9-2, 5-2 Big Ten) committed four turnovers in the first half, bumbling their way through the opening 30 minutes on offense and special teams.

“It was definitely frustrating in the first half,” said wideout Graham Zug, who fumbled a pair of punts and lost one.

Drew Astorino fumbled away another punt and Daryll Clark threw two interceptions -- both in the first quarter.

“Just stupidity by me,” Clark said.

And yet they entered halftime tied, 10-10.

Yes, these were the Indiana Hoosiers on the other sideline, and coach Bill Lynch’s squad has made a season out of jumping out to early leads and then collapsing in spectacular fashion.

Such was the case Saturday, as Indiana could build only a 10-0 advantage, scoring just seven points off those four turnovers.

That set up a 13-yard touchdown on a screen pass from Clark to Evan Royster with six seconds left in the first half that tied the score.

Indiana’s collapse continued in the third quarter as quarterback Ben Chappell overshot tailback Trea Burgess on a simple screen pass. Burgess jumped to get a hand on it, but only managed to tip it right to linebacker Navorro Bowman, who took it 73 yards for the touchdown and a lead Penn State would hold the rest of the way.

“We needed that,” said Bowman, a junior who is a candidate to head to the NFL draft this spring. “Tied at 10, it was a big boost for us, the team and for me to get that play and score the touchdown. It was a big play at a crucial time. It got us the lead, and we didn’t look back.”

From there, Royster scored from 2 yards out on the ground and Clark got one himself on a quarterback sneak from the 1 to pull away.

Indiana (4-7, 1-6) picked up a late touchdown with the game already in hand to make the final score a bit closer, but it was just another week of missed opportunities for the downtrodden Hoosiers.

Already in this Big Ten season, the Hoosiers had held two-score leads against Michigan, Northwestern and Iowa before managing to lose all three of those games.

Indiana drove for a 27-yard field goal on its opening possession and then linebacker Matt Mayberry set up his offense when he came up with an interception of a deflected pass to tight end Mickey Shuler.

Chappell threw a deep fade to Demarlo Belcher, who made an impressive grab over senior A.J. Wallace and managed to get a foot down for the 27-yard score. Indiana had converted a fourth-and-1 two plays earlier.

Clark threw another pick, this time to Nick Polk, while Astorino and Zug both coughed it up on special teams.

“It gets contagious,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “You make a couple bad plays and everybody starts pressing a little bit. Clark had a couple bad throws early and then he starts aiming the ball. And then he finally got himself back in a groove.

“It’s an emotional game. It’s a game of poise, and sometimes you slip a little bit and you pay the consequences for it. We just didn’t play very well in the first half.”

Still, the Penn State defense came up with one of several key stops, not only preventing Indiana from scoring, but getting the ball back with enough time for the Lions to drive the length of the field and score on the screen to Royster.

“It’s disappointing,” Lynch said. “You have to give the defense credit that they have been able to rise up and stop us. That’s what Penn State did, and they have the ability to do that.”